Following Tacitus: “This I regard as history’s highest function, to let no worthy action be uncommemorated, and to hold out reprobation of posterity as a terror to evil words and deeds.”

Biography:

Dr. William Watson, professor of history, teaches courses on world civilization, medieval studies, Middle East history and politics, and Russian history. He studied under Alexander Riasanovsky and Edward Peters at the University of Pennsylvania, and his research interests include medieval cross-cultural topics (convergences in the history of the West, the Islamic world, and Russia) and 20th century international relations in the era of World War II and the Cold War. He was born in New York City during the Cuban Missile Crisis and received his Ph.D. one year prior to the fall of the USSR.

Dr. Watson has spent 15 years teaching at Immaculata and previously taught at Drexel and LaSalle Universities. He has taught at the college level since 1986.

Dr. Watson has published numerous articles in publications such as America’s Civil War, The Pennsylvania Gazette, The Keystone, Pennsylvania Minuteman, Immaculata Magazine, Collier’s Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia of the Cold War (ABC-Clio), The United States at War (ABC-Clio), Great Events from History: The Renaissance (Salem Press), Magill’s Guide to Military History (Salem), The Sixties in America (Salem), Great Lives from History: the Twentieth Century (Salem), and Encyclopedia of the Ancient World (Salem).

Dr. Watson is the director of The Duffy's Cut Project and has conducted research into an Irish-American railroader mass grave from 1832. His work was covered in hundreds of media venues on television, radio, magazines, and newspapers, including: National Public Radio, including “Radio Times” with Marty Moss-Coane; CNN-TV’s “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer; BBC Radio; RTE Radio; The Wall Street Journal; The Smithsonian Magazine; The Irish Times; Tile Films hour-long documentary on RTE TV, “The Ghosts of Duffy’s Cut;” Praeger Publishers book, The Ghosts of Duffy’s Cut; 5 Associated Press wires; The Philadelphia Inquirer; American History Magazine; dozens of other newspaper, magazine, television and radio pieces; a second Tile Films hour-long documentary entitled “Death on the Railway,” June, 2012; and an episode of the Travel Channel’s “Mysteries at the Museum” television segment that aired May 1, 2012.

Service:

Chairman of Department of History

Member of Undergraduate Academic Policy Committee

University Awards Committee

Former Liaison to Education Department

Courses Taught:

World Civilization

History and Politics of Russia

History of the Middle East

History of the Second World War

The American Civil War

The World Conquerors

Senior Seminar in History

The Legend of Duffy’s Cut

Research Interests:

Cross-cultural contact and conflict between the West, the Islamic World, and Russia in the Middle Ages; Irish-American labor history; military history.